Virginia’s State Corporation Commission (SCC) released the results of a study they conducted that measured the impact of the new rules imposed by the EPA to cut carbon dioxide emissions. The results revealed that the costs of the new EPA climate change rules would cost the state $6 billion. The agency also declared the new mandates were: arbitrary, capricious, unsupported and unlawful.

The mandates would lead to significant increases in energy costs resulting in higher utility rates and would jeopardize the reliability of Virginia’s power needs. SCC analysts also state directed comments to the EPA stating that the new rues were based on: unsupported expectations of levels of renewable generation and energy efficiency that, when applied to Virginia, are extremely ambitious, almost certainly unachievable and uneconomic under traditional standards.

Eco-freaks at the Sierra Club are undaunted. In their defense of the EPA’s new requirements they decried the VA SCC report stating they did not take into account key parts of the new rules and made significant mistakes. All of the mean greenie groups who rushed to the EPA’s defense further accuse the SCC as rushing the study and basing it on a report given by Virginia’ largest utility, Dominion Power, last year. Dominion, however, defended the Virginia agency’s findings. As it turns out, the SCC has one of the least political staffs in the state and making much of the research that went into the agency’s report unbiased.

The SCC’s methodology was simple, they analyzed the EPA’s proposed rules and reported their findings based on the data. But if one reads more about the EPA’s Clean Power program, the news becomes more ominous. A Richmond Times-Dispatch article points out:

To make the carbon emission reductions called for in the proposed regulation, the EPA’s own model predicts that Virginia utilities will have to shut down fossil-fuel power plants reliably producing 2,851 megawatts of electricity, and replace that generation with just 351 megawatts of unreliable land-based wind power. “This raises alarming regional reliability concerns,” the [SCC] staff said.

However, William Yeatman who holds a Bachelors Degree in Environmental Science and is a senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute reviewed the research and calculations of the new rules and found out they will actually increase, and not decrease, CO2. This, in turn, undermines the reasons for the new carbon dioxide standards to begin with.

Energy is the basis of our civilization. With the proposed new rules not only increasing the costs of energy use in places like Virginia it will lead to not only decreased use but result in a threat to people’s lives. Increased deaths due to people either not turning on or drastically turning up their thermostats when it gets cold or hot resulting in people either freezing to death or dying of heat stroke. I am sure groups like, the Sierra Club, did not take this into account. But they obviously don’t care.